[encore] 1429: Midlife Crisis by Jane Zwart
The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily
American Public Media
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
The Slowdown is taking a week to return to some of our favorite episodes from Maggie’s tenure so far. Today’s poem is Midlife Crisis by Jane Zwart. We’ll be back on Monday, March 30 with new episodes.
Today’s episode was originally released on January 7, 2026. In this episode, Maggie writes… “Midlife has upended everything I thought about aging. It’s not at all what I expected. Certainly, when I was a child, I thought of people in their forties as old, and now that I’m closer to 50 than 40, I laugh at that. I feel … young! I feel younger, in many ways, than I did ten years ago.”
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Transcript
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| 0:19.0 | No, you'll be it. Codepete don't expect. Cogne. Require Cogne, limited, guarantee of price, no, including impuces and cargos, velocity of data, mobile, is reduced after 20 gigas a month. Hey, it's Maggie. This week, we are revisiting some of our favorite poems and reflections from the season so far. |
| 0:44.2 | I'm Maggie Smith, and this is The Slowdown. |
| 0:48.4 | Music A friend of mine said recently, |
| 1:01.0 | You seem younger now than when I met you. |
| 1:05.0 | It's like you're reverse aging. |
| 1:08.0 | I laughed. |
| 1:09.8 | I'm not reverse aging physically, mind you. I have more lines around my eyes than ever before, and some new ones around my mouth, too. The poet and me takes some pleasure in the terms for these wrinkles, crow's feet and marionette lines. |
| 1:32.7 | It helps me to remind myself that all of this is from smiling. |
| 1:39.5 | It's all evidence of joy etched into the face I've worn for almost 49 years. If there is going to be |
| 1:49.6 | evidence of any emotion on my face, let it be joy. I think what my friend meant by reverse |
| 1:59.6 | aging is that my spirit seems lighter. |
| 2:04.3 | It feels lighter. |
... |
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